Sport: Vanuatu volleyballers lose opener in China

China continued its dominance over Vanuatu at the latest Asian Beach-Volleyball Confederation tournament in Haikou, China on Thursday.

The pairing of Miller Elwin and Joyce Joshua were beaten in straight sets by the China 1 pairing, who're currently ranked at number three in the world.

They were also beaten by another Chinese pairing at an event in Nanning last week.

Their coach, Lauren McLeod, says while the result was disappointing one benefit has been the reintroduction of Joshua to top level competition.

"So what we're trying to do is just get a nice big pool of players who can all compete and be successful at international level rather than sticking with one pairing and only having two top athletes in the whole program."